Higher Risk

First, some administrivia before I delve into the post. Thanks to everyone for the whopping 9 votes on the van naming contest. America has spoken and "Miller" won the contest. Sadly, "Miller" will not be the name of the van. Though only after my last post did I give some more credence to "Miller" by thinking, I could say "it's Miller time" and that would mean it's time to go in the van. SexyVan seems to be sticking, but thanks to a comment that I have slightly massaged I sometimes call the van "Little Vincent." As in, "look at that little Vincent Van Go(gh)." In other news it's been a long time since I have posted to the blog (surprise!).

So, the truly good news is that the stars seem to be aligning for us to take home Clara tomorrow. I will be happy to post about that when she is actually in our home. We got another round of good news today when we took Evelyn to the eye doctor and found that her eyes are doing well and is no longer considered at risk for ROP (basically this can lead to blindness - details are here: http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop/). We talked to the pediatric pulmonologist (lung expert) today on the phone. He was very friendly and talkative. We got a lot of information from him, but also received news that Clara could be on oxygen for a looong time. He gave a conservative estimate that Clara could well be on oxygen through the end of summer (yikes). Long term he said that Clara would be at higher risk for asthma. That "higher risk" phrase was also given by the eye doc today when she said Evelyn was clear of ROP, but was at a "higher risk" for needing glasses early in life.

So this "higher risk" thing seems to apply to just about anything when you are a preemie. Here I was thinking that the kiddos being born at nearly 32 weeks and having no major issues we would have little to worry about. Nope. Not only do we have to worry about the risks involved with a couple of Clara's already diagnosed medical conditions, but apparently everything else too. Higher risk of nose bleeds? Check. Higher risk of bed head? Sure. Higher risk of Tourette syndrome? Shit yeah. The point is the list goes on and on (well maybe not this list). I don't know, maybe it's easier this way. There's no way I can worry about everything, so it's probably easier not to worry much at all. I can say I will be thrilled to get all the family home and hopefully everyone will thrive and I can cross off those higher risks one at a time.

Take care everyone.